Phoenix
by batsh-crazy
Summary: One-shot. Spoilers for V3 finale. Trying to fix my heart.


Author's Note: I just want Pyrrha to come back. :'(

* * *

Scenario 1:

There was no noise, not a pin drop, not even a ringing in her ears. She felt… the same. Her muscles responded with their normal swift precision. There wasn't even a hint of the pain she last remembered. Her semblance activated as usual to allow her to push lightly on the metal case around her as she felt things out.

The next thing to reach for, gently gently, was the figure standing guard in plate armor before her, just to make sure it was there.

It wasn't enough. She couldn't feel the armor. She reached harder, desperately wanting that reassurance.

It didn't work. Her eyes popped open. Something was wrong.

Everything was dark.

Her eyes were unfocused, keeping her from seeing, from knowing.

She needed to get out of that pod.

That metal pod.

She tensed, feeling her way through it. Surely she could bust it open in a second, but she had been trained to act carefully, precisely with her powers, even in moments of stress.

"Pyrrrha!" a voice barked, breaking through her concentration. "Don't even think about it!" That must be Ozpin.

"But, Jaune…!" she cried.

"Pyrrha!" he called again. "Get a grip. He's not here. Now, calm down and I'll let you out. You don't need to break anything."

She took a deep breath and blinked as much as possible to clear her eyes as the lid to the pod lifted. She was starting to see… wreckage. Pillars were broken, there was dust and chunks of stone everywhere. She could smell the acrid tinge of burnt… something. "What happened?" she asked carefully.

Ozpin sighed. "What do you remember last?"

Pyrrha frowned. "Pain, I guess. I was in a lot of pain, and then it stopped. And then… I don't remember much else, I guess." She looked herself over as she worked her way to the floor. She was sore, but no different. "I don't feel like the Fall Maiden."

"You're not. Alright, girl, imagine this: a lady in a red dress shows up down here and puts an arrow through the Fall Maiden."

Pyrrha looked for the maiden's pod. It was gone. She turned back to Ozpin with a frown.

"As we feared, the power goes to the lady in red nigh immediately. I let you out and tell you and Jaune to get out of here. You do. Not long after, you see the new Fall Maiden at the top of the tower and, like an idiot, confront her. You die." Ozpin stared her down.

Pyrrha stood her ground, confused. She couldn't quite figure out what he was getting at, but she dutifully tried to imagine the scenario.

Ozpin continued. "That is what happened. That was real. You understand, stupid girl?" He gestured wildly towards the ceiling, "you died up there! Dead! You can't come back from that!"

Pyrrha recognized how she might have felt willing to sacrifice herself in that situation, but still. She was sure she was alive.

"You're lucky I had a copy of you saved down here! Don't get any ideas, it won't happen again." Ozpin was starting to calm down, and recognize that she was still confused. "Pyrrha. You are listening to me?"

Pyrrha nodded. "I am listening. I can do that because I am alive."

Ozpin glared at her. "Yes, you are alive. I captured your aura and reconstructed your body from before. You have lost days of life, Pyrrha. You lost memories that you can never get back."

Pyrrha looked at her hands. They looked just as before. "What – what happened?"

"I'm getting tired of repeating myself. You went after the Fall Maiden. You died. I reconstructed…"

"I got that," She said a little heatedly, waving it away. "I mean, what then? I've been… dead. For how long? Is Jaune okay?"

Ozpin deflated from his angry stance at last. "I don't know. Your aura broke free not long after I woke up down here, so I would guess you didn't lose too many memories. You were under reconstruction for a week. I haven't been able to leave. The Fall Maiden disabled me pretty effectively." Pyrrha looked at him curiously. He appeared whole. "Not physically, Pyrrha, you know there's more to life than that! Anyway, I can't get out. I was hoping you would help with that once you were feeling a little better."

"So, Juane might have been with me? He might be dead?"

Ozpin looked at her. "It's possible, of course, but… search your feelings. If it had been in your power, would you have let that happen?"

Pyrrha felt a little better. "No, of course not."

"I didn't think so." Ozpin put his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry I asked so tremendous a burden of you. You have to know that even the robot girl's destruction isn't your fault. You don't have to atone for it."

He righted himself and briskly walked some paces ahead of her. "You don't have to atone, but you do have to improve. Don't let it happen again. Now, you have altruism, I'll give you that, but you need to learn to be a little smarter. You can't treat every fight like sport. You need ruthlessness, sometimes. You need creativity. You could have fought the Fall Maiden and come out alive. We're going to have to work on those things before we get out of here."

* * *

Scenario 2:

"You did what?" Salem asked quietly.

Cinder took a step back. She always found Salem unnerving, but that tone of voice was the worst she had heard yet. "I-I incinerated her. I burned her to ashes."

"Ashes, Cinder?" Salem said, turning around. "Ashes as in dust?"

Cinder didn't know what the right answer was, so she stayed silent and focused on keeping herself from running.

"Dust, as in 'man was made from dust', Cinder?"

Cinder gasped, "but, that's just a fairy tale…" She took one look at Salem and remembered her own newly acquired powers and corrected herself. "But surely no one knows how to construct people from dust anymore…"

Salem struck a line of pain across her face. "This, after you only barely survived a fight with one of the oldest magicians? We don't need them resurrecting fallen comrades! We want to destroy their hope, not allow them to rekindle it." Salem struck another line of pain, on the other cheek this time. "Next time, you will use methods a little less flashy and a little more effective. You will stab them. You will stab them until they are dead."

* * *

Scenario 3:

"What?!" Cinder cried as a silver light flowed from a small figure in the corner of the tower. She stepped back, trying to run, and she stumbled, falling over the metal circlet on the ground.

The light burned, it cut into her flesh like needles. She screamed, unable to get up, unable to run.

It was all the circlet's fault, or she would have gotten away. That circlet and that girl who wore it, Cinder raged, she would kill her again, burn her all to a crisp next time. The fire within her tried to fight the burning cold, but it wasn't enough. It was fleeing, escaping out of her skin, leaving it to the ravages of the cold.

A figure formed in fire in front of her, rising up from the ashes on the ground. Faintly, she could barely focus now through the pain of her flesh disintegrating, she saw the figure turn to examine her, shrug, and leave her to turn to dust.


End file.
